The Shadow of the Colossus vibe comes from the art style and the scale of some of the enormous bosses. The Prince of Persia touch comes in the silky smooth animation and platforming. Moving the main character is effortless. But the biggest giveaway is the obvious lifting of Ikaruga’s polarity gameplay. I mention this to the developers and Ubisoft folks, and they nod and grin.

It’s an idea that’s so distinct that you can tell where it came from instantly. It’s like trying to add turtle-shell throwing to a video game. You’re obviously going to get called on it, but really, it’s not a bad thing. In fact, Housemarque is brilliant for bringing the idea from shooters and adapting it to a Metroidvania-ish world.

If you haven’t heard of it, you better slap yourself silly. Ikaruga is the end all and be all of vertical shooting games. Remember Capcom’s 1942? What about Gradius? Ikaruga tops them all.

To some, Ikaruga is the epitome of the 2D space shooter. The Xbox Live 360 version has leaderboards, a co-op mode and replays. It’ll cost you 800 MS points. It’s definitely worth checking out if I haven’t hyped it up enough already …